Mobile Phones

[Tizer]

I think it's this Motorola g7 on John Lewis: LINK

Stanley, Mrs Tiz might need to step up from her G3 to the one you have so I'd be grateful if you could try out your new phone with the steps I showed in the photos above to see if it works for transferring photos with the USB cable. Thanks.

[plaques]

I think it's this Motorola g7 on John Lewis: I liked the look of it especially the big screen for my fat fingers. 6.2 " a tad big for carrying round but it will fit in my handbag. 'Girls will be boys and boys will be girls' The Kinks.

[Stanley]

Big keyboard, yes and even I can use it!
Will have a look at cable method when I have woken up Tiz.
Remember I know nothing but I think you lot steered me to the right one, I'm getting into it now.

[Gloria]

I am so impressed with what you are doing Stanley, I'm a bit rubbish at that sort of thing.

[Stanley]

It's all trial and error Gloria. I am sure I am now signed into all sorts of odd and dangerous things like the Cloud!
Tiz, I tried the Moto method of transferring pics but couldn't get it to work. I'm sure it is effective but I am doing something wrong somewhere.
Apart from the size of the screen the other thing that amazes me is the battery capacity. According to the reviews you can stream films continuously for 26 hours! I have only managed to get it down to 72% capacity so far and I recharged it.
A question about Lithium ion batteries. Is it better for the battery to let it almost discharge completely before charging it? I have a vague though in the back of my mind that some batteries have a 'memory' and frequent charging reduces their capacity.

[Big Kev]

I have a vague though in the back of my mind that some batteries have a 'memory' and frequent charging reduces their capacity.

That'll be Ni-Cad batteries...

[PanBiker]

Lithium Ion (Lion) and Lithium polymer (Lipo) batteries are not subject to memory effect and are very resilient. Ideal for "on the hoof" charging. They do need a special charger which monitors the potential and will vary the current during charging. The better chargers for single cell Lithium types can charge multiple cells of different types and voltages and independently charge and monitor each one. They reduce the current to almost zero when they detect the charge cut off point of each cell. From a mobile phone point of view, with my daily use I generally charge it overnight. I Installed an odd socket with USB charging ports on when I replaced the kitchen which is very useful. I have put three such sockets into Jacks living room when I installed the new ring.

[Tizer]

Tiz, I tried the Moto method of transferring pics but couldn't get it to work. I'm sure it is effective but I am doing something wrong somewhere.

Strange. Are you able to pull down the notifications screen by touching and holding the top of the screen? And if so does it not offer you what I showed in those pics? I'm not asking this to try and persuade you to transfer your pics that way but because you need to know how to access that screen. Unless of course the model you've got doesn't have a notifications screen of that sort.

[PanBiker]

It's an Android phone so it should have.

[Pluggy]

If you sign in to chrome using the same credentials as your phone, the cloud google photos will automatically be available on the computer. No faffing it just works.

Or you can just share a link to pictures :

https://photos.app.goo.gl/pi9Rish12a3kxJrz9

[Stanley]

Yes I can access notifications but can't see any help there. Give me up Tiz, I am missing something here!
Thanks on batteries.... I use the charger they sent with the phone and will charge it when it drops to about 50% which will take ages with my tiny usage.
Another question.... If I am sat next to my router and make a call does it go via the mast or the Router on wi-fi? In other words, does it affect my EE account?

[Big Kev]

Yes I can access notifications but can't see any help there. Give me up Tiz, I am missing something here!
Thanks on batteries.... I use the charger they sent with the phone and will charge it when it drops to about 50% which will take ages with my tiny usage.
Another question.... If I am sat next to my router and make a call does it go via the mast or the Router on wi-fi? In other words, does it affect my EE account?

Standard calls will go via the mast. Any calls made using an 'app' such as Messenger or Skype will use wifi.

[Stanley]

Thanks Kev....

[Tizer]

Yes I can access notifications but can't see any help there. Give me up Tiz, I am missing something here!

Then it sounds like it isn't making a connection with the PC. When you switch the phone on and connect it to the Ubuntu PC with the USB cable does it show a Moto icon on the PC screen?

[Stanley]

Yes but I couldn't get any joy out of it.
Contacts are building nicely by manual methods.

[Tizer]

Stanley, Mrs Tiz now has the same MotoG7 phone as you bought recently. It's easy to transfer photos from it to an Ubuntu PC by USB cable. It's essentially the same method I showed (using photos) that worked with Mrs Tiz's previous G3 but I've put some photos below showing it on the G7 because there is a slight difference which probably explains why you didn't manage it. I know you are probably doing it via the web now but give this a try, exactly in the order of steps as described. I've transferred photos via the web using Google Drive but I still find the USB method better for my purposes.

How to transfer photos from a Moto G7 smartphone to an Ubuntu PC using a USB cable:
*Plug the phone's USB cable into your PC.
*Switch on the phone and swipe it to unlock it.
*Now plug the other end of the cable into the phone.
*Use your finger to pull down the notifications at the top of the phone screen - keep pulling it down until you see `Charging this device by USB' (Fig.1).
*Click that tiny `down arrow' after the word USB and you'll get `Charging this device via USB' (Fig.2). Tap on the words `Tap for more options'.
*That gives you the screen shown in Fig.3
*Click on the radio button for PTP (photo transfer protocol) to get the screen in Fig.4
*As that screen shows up on the phone you'll also see the window show up on your PC just as it does when you connect with a camera. (The phone doesn't retain this setting and you need to select PTP each time you connect it to your PC.)
*You can click on File Transfer if you want to transfer other types of file.
*Note that these `transfers' of photos are actually copy commands, not move commands, so the original photos will remain on your phone.

[Stanley]

I'll try it Tiz.

[Tizer]

I'm glad to hear this. Mrs Tiz's new Moto G has a charger with a different shape at the phone end to her old phone, which I'm now using. So we have to keep two chargers around instead of just one.
`MEPs vote for universal charger for smartphones' LINK

[PanBiker]

Surely it's only the charging leads that are different. Just swap out one of your double sockets for one with USB charging ports in. We only use our chargers if we go away and many places now have mains socket chargers. I will be doing the same when I sort a mains led for when we are camping. I got one from Aldi for the centre it had two USB ports and it has a built in WiFi extender it was about £6.99 from memory.

[Tizer]

I agree about the sockets with USB ports, we intend to do that. I'm a bit puzzled about the chargers though. They have different figures on the transformers so I'm wary of swapping them over. For example, the early one has 5V = 2.0A, the later has 5V = 3.0A. Does this difference matter, will putting the old one on the higher value do any harm?

[Big Kev]

I found these in the drawer, very 'retro'.

20200202_121122.jpg

[PanBiker]

I agree about the sockets with USB ports, we intend to do that. I'm a bit puzzled about the chargers though. They have different figures on the transformers so I'm wary of swapping them over. For example, the early one has 5V = 2.0A, the later has 5V = 3.0A. Does this difference matter, will putting the old one on the higher value do any harm?

Depends on the spec of the Lithium battery in the phone. Lion batteries are a lot more forgiving than earlier types and have built in overcharge circuitry. As a rule of thumb though you should not try to force more current than the battery specs determine although a decent charger should cater for this. Most of the charge ports built into mains sockets seem to give around 2.0A - 3.0A of charge current at 5V. Takes my phone about 3 hours from total discharge to 100%.

[Tripps]

That photo prompted me to have a quick stock check. Here's the result. According to ebay the Brick seems to have been a good investment, though that's not why I bought it.

IMG_20200202_133352.jpg

PS. - That photo doesn't include the Moto5G which is actually the one I used to take the photo. It's probably better than all the others combined.

[Tizer]

Thanks for that information, Ian. Our two chargers, at 2 and 3 amp should be safely interchangeable then.

Eight mobile phones, Tripps! You'll be able to open a museum soon.

[Stanley]

Tiz, I can't see a reply from me about image transfer. I tried it and failed and thought I had replied. This is almost certainly down to me and not the phone. As for the phone itself I am warming to it and I can see it being very useful eventually but I am not making it a project, just easing my way into it.